You Can't Beat BritBox

If you like Poirot, Morse, Vera, Shetland or any of the British crime series, then you need to subscribe to BritBox. If you know that Poirot is from Belgium, then you definitely need BritBox.

Available for streaming through Amazon Prime, Smart TV, Roku and others, a BritBox subscription is only $6.99 a month. For that you can binge to your heart's content and help solve the fictional murders that plague the English countryside. England must have more fictional murders per capita than any other country. I know this because a family member was given a gift subscription. Since then BritBox has been the "Go To" destination and voice command on our Infinity account.

Even as I write this, in the background I hear Poirot and Hastings in earnest conversation about a new case Poirot has accepted. No doubt, in about half an hour Poirot's little gray cells will kick in, he will solve the mystery, and all will be revealed.

To whet your appetite, here are some appetizers. Father Brown, working from his rectory and aided by his housekeeper and a young friend follows through with his penchant for solving crimes, and finds himself in constant conflict with the local police who don't like the competition, though the competition tends more to the humourous than to the serious.

Miss Marple (Ms didn't exist in Agatha Christie's day) lives in the quaint fictional village of St Mary's Mead and much to the consternation of Scotland Yard uses her talent for observation to unravel complex mysteries. An added bonus is that her extensive friendships place her in mansions, hotels, restaurants, and locales and gives the viewer visual tours. One can marvel at Marple's propensity to find herself in the middle of a murder mystery.

Inspector Lynley gives you a series that uses plots that exploit his upper class background while his female sidekick dutifully does her job while observing incursions into a life that can never be her own.

Rosemary and Thyme (you have to admire the character names you find in British shows) are two landscaper ladies who invariably find murder and crime amongst the shrubbery and flowers they install. The two of them stay in good humour as they find and pluck the evil weeds found in their plots.

Then there is Midsomer Murders, a series in production for decades that can engage the viewer for weeks and months on end. They use multiple locations in Cottswold and nearby villages and properties for their murders and mysteries, and is to be viewed as much for the tour of the shooting locations as for their stories. They have been around long enough to have to bring in a cousin, remarkably also a detective, to replace the original lead. Here, too, a sidekick adds to the story line.

Shakespeare and Hathaway, obviously set in Stratford on Avon, features a likeable male and female private detective duo with plots that effectively draw on the history and tourist charm of the town. Their mysteries have the required humourous bits and are light hearted. Of course there is the required tension with the local police.

And who doesn't enjoy tooling around Oxford with Inspector Morse and his sidekick Lewis in his vintage Jaguar? Morse is an Oxford University dropout with many ties to academia. He has a lot more ties to the pubs of Oxford and he is often ordering a pint in one, and Lewis is left to pick up the tab. Morse loves classical music and viewers are treated to snippets of recordings and performances. In this series you get to visit multiple university buildings, museums, mansions, and of course the pubs. This successful series ended with the death of Morse, but the Lewis series picked up the thread, and finally the Endeavor series (young Morse by the first name Morse never used) followed Lewis.

These are just the crust on the bread. Vera, Shetland, A Touch of Frost; they and others are all there for you to sample and feast upon. Think of BritBox as a deli with a wide variety of foods from which to select. Anything you select is likely to be both tasty and filling.

One note of warning. It has been noted that watching these BritBox shows can invoke a desire for crumpets, gooseberry jam, digestives, and English teas that mysteriously appear on your doorstep in Amazon Prime boxes. This is not such a bad thing, but you should be forewarned.